MANUSCRIPT: AC. Ink.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 202; LL 230; L (1931) 192-193.

During the autumn of 1861 Bowles became a patient at Dr. Denniston's water-cure in Northampton, and in October he visited the Dickinsons several times. He was suffering from sciatica. Dick Swiveller and the "Marchioness" (the drudge who in the end marries Dick) are characters in Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop. ED's signature to the letter may well be a descriptive term which Bowles applied to her when she had refused to see him.